BELGIAN “ACTIVISTS” WANT POOR PEOPLE TO STARVE: Belgian Protesters Destroy GM Field Trial: “In Wetteren, a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders, activists succeeded in damaging the GM potatoes being trialled for blight resistance, despite a large contingent of police officers who had been ordered to guard the GM trial. The officers were unable to stop the 300-400 or more peaceful protesters of all ages, who included local people.” I mean, what possible good could new varieties of blight-resistant potatoes ever do? These people should be treated as potential mass murderers, not as “activists.” Because that’s what they are.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Shackelford writes:

On your note about Belgian protesters destroying GM trials, I find it ironic that your link is to a blog called “Food Freedom”, which celebrates a reduction in the kinds of food that people can buy.

But more odious is this common MSM trope of referring “peaceful protesters” when they are no such thing. If you are overwhelming a line of police officers to destroy scientific tests, you are not peaceful. If you are marching across an international border into Israel in defiance of authorities, you are not peaceful. If you fly a Jolly Roger on your boat, paint the names of ships you’ve sunk and ram Japanese whaling vessels, you are committing acts of war, not of peace.

When can we get the English language back?

Well, I was trying with the “mass murderer” bit.

A LOOMING THREAT OF election fraud in Turkey. I trust Erdogan like I trust Hugo Chavez. Which is to say, I trust him absolutely to do whatever he can get away with.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Harvey Mansfield: Sociology and Other ‘Meathead’ Majors: Archie Bunker was right to be skeptical of his son-in-law’s opinions.

BUILDING a better Big Mac. “The final result is a sandwich that’s truly worthy of the title of American Icon. Two all-beef patties diminutive in size but massive with flavor potential. A special sauce that need not hide behind an of artificially colored mask with no problems dripping out wherever it wants to go. Fresh, crisp lettuce shredded just before serving. American cheese melted to its gloriously gooey fullest. Sharp pickles. Onions carefully guided to tame their pungency and bring out their natural sweetness. All on a soft triple-decker sesame seed bun made with precisely the right number of seeds.”

DUPNIK UPDATE: Hundreds march in protest for Jose Guerena. “Hundreds gathered in Pima County Monday for a fallen Marine, but this was no typical Memorial Day ceremony. A group called Oath Keepers organized a march and protest for Jose Guerena.”

SEX-SELECTIVE ABORTIONS lead to fewer girls in India. Meaning that in a generation or so, it’ll be neck-and-neck whether India or China will be first to perfect a realistic fembot.

JOHN HAWKINS interviews Ben Shapiro about his new book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV.

BIG: “Shell’s latest fossil-fuel-extracting vehicle will dwarf every U.S. naval ship. The Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility will be nearly one-third of a mile long and tip the scales at up to 600,000 tons. That’s six times heavier than the U.S.’ largest aircraft carrier. . . . The Prelude FLNG will be used to extract, cool and offload liquefied natural gas into tankers so that it can be transported to major markets across the world. Until now, the liquefaction of offshore gas has always involved piping the gas to a land-based plant.”

BARBARIANS: Egyptian general admits ‘virginity checks’ conducted on protesters.

EUROPEAN DISUNION is a blog on the Eurozone problems.

IN THE MAIL: King’s Counsel: A Memoir of War, Espionage, and Diplomacy in the Middle East.

THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: Consumer Confidence Falls Unexpectedly In May. “Consumers are considerably more apprehensive about future business and labor market conditions as well as their income prospects.” Unexpectedly!

YA THINK? Peter Ingemi: Too Many Coincidences In Weiner’s Tale.

Related: Is America Ready for ‘WeinerGate’?

UPDATE: Weiner’s office refuses to say if lewd photo is of congressman. No police investigation underway. Meanwhile the press is covering for him like it did for John Edwards, and Mickey Kaus is mocking them for it.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More on Weiner from Kaus. Alibi one has collapsed already.

MORE: Bryan Preston: How Long Before Weiner Blames, Fires A Staffer?

So now Weiner has lawyered up (why does the victim lawyer up? Because he’s not the victim!), dodged specific fact-based questions about the photo and whether he has contacted Cordova (because the facts aren’t in his favor for one reason or another), and is calling the tweet a “prank.” From “hacked” to “prank” is a major, but strategically useful, climb down.

The next step is to find a staffer to blame the “prank” on, which will be a staffer who had some access to his social networking accounts. Deputy communications director, something like that. Weiner finds a way to compensate the staffer for taking the fall (promises to find them another job outside DC or his district), lets them take the fall, and attempts to move on. And the media, which can’t even get the basic facts in this whole thing straight after several of us blogger types have helpfully published detailed timelines for them, will do their best to let him move on.

It’s interesting to compare the press treatment of this issue to, say, the Mark Foley affair.

WHAT IS IT WITH THESE GUYS? DSK 2.0: Another international banker arrested for sexual assault.

CHANGE: ‘Double-Dip’ in Housing Prices Even Worse Than Expected. Unexpectedly!

A.W.R. HAWKINS: Are You Better Off Than You Were Two Years Ago?

DAVID FREDDOSO ON THE AUTOPEN: Congressmen don’t have to read bills, so what makes you think the president has to sign them?

If only those clowns took a similarly lax attitude toward our obligations to the government.

NIALL FERGUSON: Austerity Works: In bemoaning the pain of fiscal responsibility, the Democrats show they still haven’t learned the lessons of Europe. “The real lessons for the United States are clear. Those who run up debt in good times can borrow only so much more when a recession strikes. And heavily indebted governments postpone fiscal stabilization at their peril. If you wait to reform until the bond market calls time, you are—to use a technical term from economics—screwed.”

DONALD BOUDREAUX: More Weather Deaths? Wanna Bet? “Contrary to what many environmentalists would have us believe, Americans are increasingly less likely to be killed by severe weather.”

TODAY ONLY: Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives DVD sale.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: College merit aid produces bidding wars. “It is becoming a common scenario post-recession: Affluent applicants, shocked by college sticker prices and leery of debt, are choosing a school not because it is the first choice but because it is the best deal. Students are using their academic credentials to leverage generous merit awards from second- or third-choice schools looking to boost their own academic profiles. Colleges are responding with record sums of merit aid, transforming the admissions process into a polite bidding war. . . . Price has always been a concern in choosing a college. But experts say there is a tradition among many upper-middle-class families — those with six-figure incomes and little hope for need-based aid — of finding the money to attend the most selective school that offers admission, whatever the price. That is changing, admissions counselors say. Today, even privileged families are questioning the wisdom of paying $50,000 a year for college, especially on an institution that lacks the pedigree of a Harvard or Yale.”

And note this: “Shevach said she chose the Delaware school for the sake of her parents. ‘They said that they would have paid for Penn State,’ she said. ‘But I didn’t want them to be $160,000 in debt. You need to think about the investment you’re making: Are you going to get that $160,000 back?’”

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

IOWAHAWK: Help Me Bring the Weiner Hacker to Justice. “As much as I admire Congressman Weiner’s Gandhi-like forgiving attitude toward his assailant – as well as his world class ninja programming skills – I’m afraid this incident doesn’t just involve him. For, after all, what Internet user is safe when the person who hacked this unsuspecting Weiner remains at large? Okay, maybe not ‘large,’ but still, come on man.”

CHANGE: IRS Opens Investigation Into College Retirement Plans.

HONOR THE TROOPS by hiring them.

SO DOES THIS MEAN YOUR ROTH IS SAFE? Study: Closing tax breaks for retirement would do little to help budget. I wouldn’t count on it . . . .